AP Exam Sends Thousands of Years of History Down the Memory Hole

     The College Board, which provides the Advanced Placement Exams that allow high schoolers to earn college credit by successfully passing an exam, has decided to axe over seven thousand years of history and only testing on history since 1450.

“In response to valuable feedback from AP teachers, we’re making changes to AP World History in 2019-20 that better align it with the scope of content that most colleges and universities cover in a single course.

“These changes will help give students more time during the school year to develop understanding through sustained focus on key concepts and practice of essential skills.

“What’s changing, and why?

“Beginning in the 2019-20 school year:

The AP World History Exam will assess content only from c. 1450 through the present (Periods 4–6).

The exam format and rubrics will stay the same, in alignment with the other two AP history exams.

Some content (i.e., world religions) from Periods 1–3 will be reviewed in Periods 4–6.

Some content clarifications will be provided.”

     Rather than cover vital history that led to the creation of modern society, they would relegate all history before 1450 to a pre-AP class where schools could teach about ancient civilizations that are foundational for contemporary society. The rise of Christianity and the intellectual/cultural influence of Rome and ancient Greece, as well as the medieval developments after them, are vital to understanding how our own civilization came to be as well as providing a greater intellectual depth—and philosophical counterbalance—to more modern strains of thought.

     Indeed, those who want to control the future must also control the past, and it’s easy to control the past when you toss it into þe olde Memory Hole.

     Unsurprisingly, over 10,000 have signed a petition to bring back testing of history before 1450. However, this is also angering the Left: The American Historical Association is worried that “this change is likely to reduce the teaching of precolonial and non-Western history at the high school level.”

     Hat Tip: Campus Reform.

Tweet